


The Fairy Library

by Little_Inkstone



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Rumbelle Secret Santa, Rumbelle Secret Santa 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 13:53:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13078263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Inkstone/pseuds/Little_Inkstone
Summary: Occasionally subtly is needed to acquire what Rumplestiltskin desires.  In this case he needs to fool the librarian of the Blue Fairy’s library into believing he’s nothing but a poor peasant seeking shelter from the rain.  He didn’t expect to become so enamoured with her during his ruse.





	The Fairy Library

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rufeepeach](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rufeepeach/gifts).



> Written for Rufeepeach during the 2017 Rumbelle Secret Santa event. I really liked being your Santa this year! I’m sorry tumblr seemed so hungry for my messages, but I hope you enjoy this!

It seemed that wherever Rumplestiltskin turned the infernal Reul Ghorm and her legion of fairies where there to keep him from his son.  It had been her machinations that had stolen Baelfire from him in the first place, and it was her interference that kept him from his boy now.  She hoarded magical knowledge just as much as he did, but whatever she took was taken beyond his reach.  If it hadn’t been taken to the obnoxious realm of flowers then it would be stored away in some secret corner.  The Blue Fairy assumed he didn’t know where her little hidey-holes were, but no secret was too hidden for him to uncover.  When people were desperate they’d sell their own children to get what they wanted, information was much easier to get the desperate to part with.

The pesky gnat had something he needed to find Bae; a book written before Nimu about the laws of magic.  This wouldn’t be the first time he perused a lead that had nothing to do with the Dark Curse he was brewing.  It would be foolish to hang all his hopes on one deal, and if there was one thing Rumplestiltskin refused to be again, it was a fool.  Anything that might reunite him with his son faster was a boon in his mind, and nothing would stand in his way.  Or nothing should be able to stand in his way, but Blue was a crafty creature and after so many years of their squabbles she had learned the best way to thwart him.  In a far off corner of the Enchanted Forest, on the lands of a small dukedom, was the library that housed the tome he sought.

Due to some tricky magic that would take years upon years to untangle – more than it would take to have his curse cast – he couldn’t take his book without the permission of the librarian.  Unfortunately for him the girl that tended to the books was rather obstinate and took her duties to the fairies far too serious.

“I’m sure we can come to an understanding.”  Rumplestiltskin said with a smile that was nowhere near winsome.

“And I’m sure we can’t.”  The girl replied stubbornly as she continued to tidy one of the many rooms in what was the Fairy Library.

“No one will even miss the book I’m looking for.”  He cajoled.  “Certainly there is something you want?”

There was a pause and he felt rather pleased.  Everyone wanted something, and when faced with all the power in the world no one was able to withstand the temptation.

“You know, there is something I want.”  She said as she turned back to smile at him.

“Oh yes?  Tell me.”  He replied with his own sly smile.

“I want you to  _leave_.”

His eyes narrowed at her words and he clenched his fists so tightly that if he were a normal man his nails would have made him bleed.  If he wanted he could turn the impetuous girl into a toad with nary a thought, and yet she was standing and tall and defiant.  No one else had been so bold to stand up to the Dark One, it was almost admirable.  Almost. She was standing between him and a chance at getting to his son.  If it weren’t for the magic of the library ensuring only she could call the book down from it’s shelf he wouldn’t hesitate to remove her from his sights.  This would take something more subtle then force, he wouldn’t get anywhere otherwise.

“Well, dearie, if that’s your  _final_  word on the matter…”

“It is,”  She said confidently.

“Then it’s time I took my leave.”  He replied flamboyantly, not allowing her to see the depth of his frustration.

With a flick of his wrist he was surrounded by a cloud or swirling smoke that took him to his spinning wheel where he was able to calm himself enough to think of a better plan.  All his usual methods of getting what he wanted had failed him.  Violence, or the threat of it, was pointless, the fairy’s magic surrounding the girl, human as she was, protected her, and she knew it too. There seemed to be no deal of his tempting enough to convince her.  Stealing the book was impossible, and if he sent someone to borrow it for him the pages would appear blank to his eyes.  The Blue Fairy had done all she could to make it impossible for him to take the information found in the books in her library.  After hundreds of his tricks she’d finally come up with all sorts of spells and pitfalls to keep him from taking what he wanted.  If a fairy was the one guarding the library he’d simply have to kill her for her wand, but instead the conduit was a young woman.

The girl was the key, he could feel it.  His future sight tugged at the back of his mind, showing him flashes of a scattered future he had no clue how to reach.  Visions danced behind his eyes as he tried to make sense of them. Absentmindedly he turned his wheel, his hands knowing what to do even as he was lost in the shattered memories of a future that might never come to be.  He could see the librarian, she wasn’t very different in his foresight then she had been when he’d seen her an hour earlier, but now her smile was soft and almost… sweet.  She was handing him the book he wanted.  He felt himself reach out for her, his hands clasping around the old leather, feeling it’s heft as he took it, and the brush of her soft fingers as she gave it to him. There was nothing coercing her, she was giving it to him of her own free will.

Rumple’s eyes blinked open slowly, peeking into the future always left him unsettled and this time was no exception, but it had helped him get an idea for how he could claim his prize.

He waited a month before he put his plan into action, any sooner and it might be suspicious, and in the meantime he needed to make preparations.  There was a chance that he wouldn’t be able to get in after so boldly walking in like he had the first time.  No doubt the girl had called her fairy-godmother and spun a terrible tale of how he’d come to harass her.  He needed a disguise that would not only fool the eye, but any spell designed to sense magic too.  For that magic suppressing squid ink would do the trick, but if he wanted to be able to move or still access his magic in a pinch he couldn’t just drink it straight. Just touching the stuff would leave him paralyzed; instead he’d decided to brew a tea a foul tasting tea he’d used a time or two in the past for deals.

When the month was up and his tea was made he dressed himself as a peasant.  A sickening rush of memories almost had him giving up as he felt the coarse fabric against his skin, but he pushed past it. This was all for Bae.  Once he had the book he could burn the clothes and the library to the ground if he wanted to.  He just needed to keep himself composed until then.  Rumple let out a breath and when he opened his eyes he was hidden among the trees beside the path leading to the library.

Reaching up he flicked his wrist in a way that would seem lazy to anyone looking.  Above him the sky began to darken and the wind picked up as foreboding clouds crowded out the sun.  A rumble of thunder followed a bright streak of lightening and with it came the rain.  Thick cold sheets of the stuff pounded down, soaking him to the skin before he had time to raise his flask to his lips and take a swallow of the tea he’d brewed. He grimaced and smacked his lips as he felt it slide down his throat.  A shimmer of magic rippled across his skin and soon, instead of the all-powerful Dark One, a poor spinner stood in his place.  His hair was plastered to his head as he made the short trek up to the stone building before him.

The road was already slick with mud and despite his miserable state he couldn’t help but smile. No fairies would be coming to interfere now.  Not while it was raining so hard that their gossamer wings would be torn to shreds. The storm also gave him a good excuse to spend longer in the library; he was nothing but a pitiful peasant looking for shelter.  If perhaps he took a liking to one of the books he found during his stay, surely the librarian would be kind enough to let him look through it.  And once it was in his grasp he was allow his disguise to fall and he’d reveal his true self and laugh at the horror in her eyes as she realized what she’d allowed to happen.

Suppressing his impish giggle he made himself look as miserable as possible – not a hard feat when he was wearing the face of his former poor spinner self – and knocked on the grand wooden door.  When he’d been here the first time he’d simply used his magic to push the door open and make himself at home, but now he had to wait.  He shifted uncomfortably as cold water dribbled down the back of his clock and sent a shiver racing down his spine.  Finally when he was about to knock again the door opened with a grunt. The girl – who was rather short he was just realizing – was pulling on the large and clearly heavy oak door with all her might.

It seemed the Blue Fairy was so miserly with her precious dust she hadn’t even enchanted the doors of her library for the poor girl in her service.  The sight was so pitiful that he couldn’t help but send a stray wisp of magic to make it easier for her and the door all but swung open. Rumple shot a glare down at his fingers, silently reminding himself to not do anything too tricky while he was still concealed.

“Hello,”  The girl said cheerfully with breathy pants form her exertion, then her face fell when she saw him.  “You poor thing, you’re soaked!”  Before he could let out his pathetic spiel and beg for shelter she was grabbing his arm and pulling him into the halls of the library.

“You’re t-too kind, milady.”  He stuttered, nothing fabricated about how taken aback he was by her benevolence.

“Nonsense, you’re freezing to the touch and I have a large enough fire and enough blankets for the both of us.”  She said matter-of-factly as she pulled him along.

“I could be a bandit,”  Rumple found himself saying.  “I could be here to rob you blind.”  He added.

The fact that he hadn’t had to cajole a place by her kitchen’s fires had unbalanced him.  He’d never known someone in such a high station to care about those that toiled in the dirt.  No wonder this girl served the Blue Fairy, she was odd enough for the job certainly.  She turned to him, an amused light shining in her eyes as they reached the main room he’d been in a month before.

“Are you planning to rob me blind, sir?  Surely if you do you can wait until the storm passes?  Even thieves like to be warm.”  She said as she plumped a pillow and handed him a blanket.

“As you say, milady.”

“Please, call me Belle.”  She replied.

“Belle,”  He repeated.

Rumple hadn’t realized how blue her eyes were the first time they’d met, but now that she was so close he could see a beautiful spark of life in her eyes.  His tongue felt heavy and his throat tightened as he swallowed. Ducking his head the way he would have if he were still the craven peasant he had been he broke their eye contact and removed his cloak.  He wrapped her offered blanket around himself.  It didn’t help much with all the rain that had soaked into his clothes, but there was nothing much he could do at the moment.  Instead he settled in front of the fire and removed his boots, letting out a small sigh once his toes began to warm.  He’d spent much more time in the rain in the past, as both a spinner and the Dark One, but in all his years he didn’t think he’d found a more simple pleasure then warming his feet in front of a fire.

“You didn’t tell me your name.”  Belle said, breaking him from his trance.

“Oh, yes, of course I’m…”  For a terrible moment his mind went blank when he realized he’d carefully planned everything out except this.  Why had he never assumed she would ask for his name?  Names had power, even for those without magic. “Spindleshanks.”  He blurted out.

“That’s a nice name.”  Belle said kindly.  Then she bit her lip and tilted her head to the side.  “But rather long, would it be alright, if just for now I called you Spindle?” She asked.

“If it pleases you, milady.”  Rumple replied.  It would be better than her calling him a name that echoed back to a worse time in his life.

“Wonderful, but please call me Belle, it’s the least I can ask of the man that will steal all my precious things.”  She laughed.

Her words were marked by an ominous crack of thunder that Rumple found rather over dramatic. Perhaps he had been a bit too overzealous when summoning his storm.  Then of course there was the matter of her actual words.  In his vision she had been happy to give him the book he sought.  If she thought he was going to rob her she’d never relax.  He needed to put her at ease.

“I promise, Belle, all of your books are safe from me.”  All but one of them was anyway.

“Oh,”  Her eyes lit up.  “So you knew this was a library?  Were you coming here for a book?”

“I ah–”  What did he say that wouldn’t give him away? “No, I mean yes!”  He could feel himself spinning a loose thread on the blanket as he tried to gather his thoughts.  Surely he should be able to cobble together a competent sentence while she was looking at him with her bright blue eyes filled with curiosity. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen beautiful women before.  “That is to say, I came here to sell some of my goods, and once I was done, I thought it would be enjoyable to visit.”

“What were your wares?  What do you do, Spindle?”  She asked as she leaned against the arm of her chair to get a better look at him.

“I spin.”  He said honestly.

“Spinning has always seemed like magic to me.”  Belle said. “The lump of wool turns into all sorts of threads and yarns and all with the same wheel, it’s amazing.”

A smile tugged at his lips as he looked into the fire, better thoughts filling his mind at her words.  “Yes, it is a little like magic.”

He would know after all, but he preferred spinning to magic.  It was something that could be touched and held, the only price of spinning was the wool that was used.  Nothing was lost when he spun, things were only made.  Bae had been happy when he was just a spinner, and in a way, he had been too.  They’d been poor and he hadn’t been able to give his son everything he wanted or needed, but magic hadn’t given him that either.  That’s why he needed more of it, if he could just amass enough power and magic then he’d have that simple happiness back and more too.

Turning back to Belle he cleared his throat.  “There was actually a book I was hoping to find while I was here; can you help me with that?”

“Of course.” Belle stood and let her own blanket slip down her shoulders.  “I am the librarian after all, if there’s a book within these four walls I can find it.”

Excitement and triumph turned to bitter disappointment only moments later when Rumple realized the Blue Fairy had managed to thwart him once more.  After his visit she had come to the library and had taken the book he had been asking about.

“I’m sorry, Spindle, it seems to be rather popular right now; you’re the third person that’s wanted it in as many weeks.”  Belle explained.  “I’d forgotten Blue had taken it.”

“It’s not your fault,  _dearie_.”  He muttered as a litany of curses aimed at the self-righteous gnat flowed through his mind, not noticing the hurt look Belle shot him at his false endearment.  His inner tantrum was interrupted when Belle continued to speak.

“But she’ll be bringing it back soon, it belongs to the library, a-and the things that belong here can’t leave.”  She looked away.  “Not for long anyway.”

“So it’s coming back?”  Rumple asked softly, his voice strained and hopeful.

“Yes, in a few days at the most.”  Belle explained.  “Until then you could stay–”

“I’ll stay.” He said almost cutting her off.

Belle smiled as if he’d just made her week and he ducked his head as he felt his cheeks begin to heat.  He realized too late he was blushing; it had been years since that had happened, and even when it did it wasn’t visible thanks to his scales.  It was disconcerting realizing how exposed he was without his sparkling skin and leather.  They were like knight’s armour for him; he used them to face the world while showing who had the most power in every situation.  But right now that wasn’t supposed to be him.  He was supposed to be an unlucky peasant that had been caught in a bad storm.

He tried to keep that in mind over the next few days as waited for the flying annoyance to return with his tome.  That was easier said than done when Belle was in the room.  She had a way about her that made him forget himself.  Her smile was easy and sincere when they talked, and her eyes captivated him like nothing else did.  She made him feel more human than he had since he lost his son. Taking his meals with her, talking to her, laughing and sharing bits and pieces of his life pulled something out of him he’d thought long lost.  And in return he hoped he was helping Belle too.  He hadn’t seen it at first, but she was lonely.  No one else came while he was there, not even after the rain had stopped and most of the clouds had thinned a little.

She hid it well, but he could tell she was just as starved for human contact as he was. Often times she would wander into the room he was in just to make simple conversation or to sit and read beside him. He found himself doing the same after the first day.  The library was too big for two people, let alone just one.  When Belle was there it didn’t seem to quiet and dreary, the curtains in every room was open, but if she was there it seemed as if the sun was brighter and the overcast sky wasn’t so bleak.  Food tasted richer when he ate at her table and his mind was calm enough to let him sleep after a long and rousing discussion with her over any little topic they could come up with.  He had assumed he’d go mad without anything to do but read and talk but conversations with Belle never seemed to be long enough.  One moment they’d be talking about the plot of a book he was reading on her suggestion.  Then the next thing either of them knew it was almost dusk and they’d find themselves arguing about the best way to raise a turnip.

Rumple was so captivated he didn’t realize how much time had gone by, until one day when they were talking Belle cut herself off midsentence.  She looked up and then stood.

“You have to go.” Belle said hurriedly, as she grabbed his hand and pulled him from his chair.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, so taken a back he hadn’t noticed that she was touching him.

“Blue’s back, and if she sees you she’ll have too many questions, please, just stay out of sight?”  Belle asked, her eyes pleading with him as she pushed him into the stairwell leading to the kitchen from their reading room.

“Okay,” Rumple agreed.

She scurried back to her chair and he watched her through the crack in the still open door. He didn’t want to deal with the Blue Fairy as it was anyway, the less time he spent in her presence the better. Just the thought of her set his teeth on edge, but he stayed his hand when it came to ending her life, she still had a part to play in his plan.  The future was always changing, but her presence stuck out like a sore blue thumb, if it hadn’t he would have ended her and taken her wand years ago.  His contemplations on the demise of the Blue Fairy were cut short when the insipidly haughty firefly drifted into the room through the window.  As always the sight of her filled his mind with rage and the sick plummeting feeling in his gut that came with green portals that ruined his life.  Just the sight of her beside Belle, someone he had – beyond all reason – started caring for, made him uneasy.

Belle curtsied politely and took the offered book, holding it carefully as Blue continued to stand in front of her.

“Has anyone visited?”  Blue asked.

“No, it’s just been me since you last came.”  Belle replied with a bright smile.

Rumple watched the bug’s eyes slip from Belle’s face to the table where their tea cups were.

“It seems odd to have poured yourself too cups.”  The fairy remarked.

Shrugging Belle and continued to smile.  “You know me, I’m so clumsy that I poured too much sugar into one and I decided to pour myself a second cup instead of drinking it.”

“I see, well, please do be more careful in the future.”

“I will be.” Belle said with a pleasant wave as the Blue Fairy floated away.  Once they were alone again Belle let her shoulders relax.  “You can come out now.”  She called.

He opened the door and walked to her, his eyes trained on the book in her hands.  It was so close; within the pages of that book might be the key to reuniting with his son.  All Rumple wanted to do was reach out and snap it up, but if he did that the pages would be blank, she needed to give it to him.  His heart was racing and his hands had a slight tremble as he looked at it.

“That’s the book I was looking for.”  He managed to say, his eyes never leaving it.

“Yes, it is.” Belle replied.  “Can I ask, why do you want it?”

An easy lie was on the tip of his tongue, but then he looked up at her, their eyes catching and holding.  Time seemed to stop in that moment, it was as if the world was holding it’s breath, waiting for his answer.  He could lie to Belle, he could spin any story he wanted, but he  _didn’t_  want to.  Rumple found that he wanted Belle to know.

“It’s to help me find my son.”

She smiled in the way she had in his vision and held out the book.  “Then I hope it helps you.”

Rumple reached out and took it, his hands clasped around the old leather, feeling its heft in his hands, and the brush of her soft fingers as she gave it to him.

“Belle there’s something I need to–”

He was cut off by the soft press of her lips to his, her arms wrapped around her and he found himself letting the book fall so he could hold her back.  Rumple let out a soft moan of protest as she pulled back and he opened his eyes to see her smiling at him again, her eyes taking in his features as if she’d never seen him.

“There you are, Rumplestiltskin.”  Belle sighed, running her hands through his hair.

His eyes widened at her words.  “You knew?” He choked out.

“Well, not at first, but I figured it out.”  She said, her cheeks turning a fetching shade of pink.

“But you gave me the book, before you wouldn’t.”  Rumple protested.

“That’s when I only knew what Blue had told me about you, but I did some reading after you left about you, and then you were so different from what she’d said.”  Her eyes slid away from his with a soft smile and then she looked back at him.  “I liked getting to know Spindle, and it was even better when I realized that’s who you really were.  The Dark One’s the real mask, isn’t it?”

He nodded dumbly and then she kissed him again.  Somehow he found himself being led to the settee that mostly went unused; they preferred to sit beside each other in their matching chairs.  Now he couldn’t think clearly as he memorized the delicious feel of her lips slide against his.  She played with his hair as they kissed and he feared she’d drive him mad if she kept it up.  The tantalizing feel of her nails against his scalp sent shivers of pleasure racing up and down his spine.  His own hands began to wander of their own accord as they settled on the soft cushions of the sofa.  Rumple was sure that nothing in his life had ever felt as good as it did when Belle sighed against his lips.  For so long he’d been alone, something missing in his heart.  Not just Bae, although that was a hole that only his son could fill.  But beside it was one he had never noticed, a hole that was perfectly Belle shaped.

It just seemed natural for their hands begin to pull and tug at knots and strings as they explored. There were too many layers between them and too much cloth between his lips and her skin.  Belle seemed to feel the same way if her pushing him down on the lounge and pulling at his shirt was anything to go by.  He let out a groan as she kissed his chest, it felt like he was about to burst into flames at her touch.  Rumple had been nothing but a cold block of ice until he felt Belle’s arms around him.  Every one of her kisses was like a brand being pressed into his soul.  When she experimentally licked his nipple he’d had too much of laying back and letting her explore.  He pulled her up to meet him for another kiss.

The soft feeling of her breasts wrapped in nothing but her chemise as they pressed against his naked chest made his pants feel too tight; especially when she wiggled around to get a better angle.  Belle was smaller than him but her weight on his lap and chest was a comforting pressure. He held her hips as he slipped his tongue between her lips, humming when her nails bit into his shoulders.  Her hips rolled down on his and the friction was maddeningly delicious.  Belle moaned and pulled back to shift again and she let out a strangled sound as she rubbed herself through their clothes against the rigidness in his pants. Rumple looked up at her with half lidded eyes, lust clouding his mind as he watched her ride him.  The sight of her using him to find her pleasure was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen and the feeling of her hot center made him want to burst.

Rumple sat up, unable to be so far from her and began to feast on the tempting column of her neck.  He sucked and nipped her as her arms wrapped around him for more leverage.  His lips trailed down her body as she started to start moving faster.  Carefully he raised one of his hands from her hips and tore the delicate fabric at her décolleté until her glorious breasts were bare for his eyes and mouth to feast on. He was lacking finesse at this point, instead he let his body do as it wished, his hips bucked up to meet Belle’s and his mouth and hand played with the soft round perfection that was her chest. His other hand had moved from her hip to grab her pump behind to guide her hips as she began to quicken her pace and lose their steady rhythm.

Both of Belle’s hands came up to cup his cheeks and pull him into a deep kiss as her whole body shuddered above his.  Rumple held her as she tensed and let out a sharp cry against his mouth.  As she fell apart in his arms are hand grasped the hair at the nape of his neck and pulled.  The pain, mixed with everything that preceded it, was too much and he fell back onto the settee as light burst behind his eyes.  Rumple chocked out Belle’s name as he held her to him, his toes curling with pleasure.  His whole body felt as if it had been shocked as he tensed, his head swam and his chest bellowed with every breath.

When he was able to open his eyes without feeling like his whole being would unravel he found Belle lying on his chest with a sated look in her eyes and an uncomfortable wet patch in his pants.  With a lazy wave of his hand they were both clean and in more comfortable clothes to lounge around in.  He watched Belle, his mind pleasantly blank as she stared back at him, her smile content and languid.

“That was wonderful.”  She whispered to him.

Rumple felt himself smile, his heart lighter than it had been then it ever had been.

“It was.”  He sighed.

Belle bit her lower lip, her smile turning mischievous.  “And there’s more, isn’t there?”

“There is,” He agreed his own smile turning playful, and then he sighed and laughed.  “But not just yet, sweetheart, you’ve worn me out for the moment.”

Belle giggled and pecked his lips gently, her smile too wide for a proper kiss.

“Well, it seems you did have a visitor, Belle.”  A voice said, breaking them out of their stupor faster than falling into a freezing pond would have.

Belle bolted off of him, trying to right her mussed hair and hide that he hadn’t bothered changing her into anything less revealing the then the shift under her dress.

“Blue!  I-I didn’t see you there.”  She stuttered.

Slowly Rumple sat up and came to stand behind Belle, glaring venomously at the Blue Fairy.  It seemed he was allowed no sense of peace or happiness.

“What are you doing here?”  He asked dangerously.

“I could ask the same thing, but it seems you’re defiling my librarian.”  She sneered.  “I would ask if you have any shame, but I know the Dark One can’t care for anything but his base needs.”

“That’s not true!” Belle snapped, stepping out of Rumple’s arms and towards Blue.  “You don’t know him like I do!  He’s nothing like you’ve said.”

“Oh Belle, my sweet child,”  The fairy said too kindly.  She cupped Belle’s cheek and Rumple tensed at the gesture.  “You don’t know the Dark One the way I do, I’ve known him for hundreds of years.  He’s an evil and terrible creature that will use you and then be done with you once he’s gotten what he wants.”

“That’s not true.” Rumple said, bearing his teeth in a ghastly grimace.

“Then why are you here?”  She countered and then gestured to the book lying on the floor between them.  “That book seems to be all you’re really interested in, it is why you came here in the first place, isn’t it?  And to get it you’d do anything; even seduce a poor young girl…”

“He didn’t seduce me.”  Belle scoffed before Rumple could hurl a scathing reply about the Blue Fairy having her wand to far up her arse to recognize what they were getting up to.

“Oh?”  Blue said, stepping back from Belle, her eyes becoming frosty.  “Are you saying you’ve chosen to side with this beast?”

“He’s not a beast.” Belle bent down and grabbed the book while stubbornly lifting her chin.  “I’m the librarian of this library and I choose who can take the books from this place, and I’ve decided that the Dark One will not misuse the knowledge in this book.”

Blue’s eyes flashed. “Then you leave me no choice.” Rumple stepped forward at her words and gently took hold of Belle’s arm just in case.  “Your service as the Librarian of Fairy Knowledge has come to an end, you are no longer fit.”

Rumple turned to look at Belle, her eyes widening and her jaw falling open.

“No, no please,” Belle begged as she took a step forward.

“My decision is final.”  The Blue Fairy said stonily.

In a bright flash the world tilted around them and they were left in a clearing within the woods where the library had been.  Now Rumple was alone beside a distraught Belle.  He kneeled beside her and gently ran his hand through her hair.

“Belle, Belle?” He whispered worriedly.

She looked up at him, it was clear she was shocked, but her eyes were dry.  “I don’t know what to do now.”  Belle admitted.  “The library has been my whole life for years.”  She shook her head and let out a humourless laugh.  “I don’t even know if my parents will take me back if Blue goes to them first.”

Rumple took her hand and helped her stand; briefly noticing she was still holding the book that had begun all of this.  He pushed that away for later and moved to stand in front of her, still holding her hand. Clearing his throat he absentmindedly rubbed his thumb and forefinger together.

“You know,” He began.  “I have many rooms,”  Rumple said seemingly apropos to nothing.  She looked at him and tilted her head to the side.  “I ah, also have a library, with a great many books I’m sure you’ve never read before.”

Belle ducked her head and then looked up at him from under her lashes.  “You do?”  She asked.

“I do, i-if you find yourself in need of a home.”  He stuttered.

Belle smiled and the sun finally broke through the clouds making her eyes sparkle as she leaned up.  “I think we’ll only need one bedroom.”  She whispered in his ear.


End file.
